– John F. Grimes, OSU Extension Beef Coordinator
You do not have to look long and hard to find plenty of evidence that feeder calf marketing is undergoing significant changes across the country. The market is currently sending a clear message that buyers are demanding more for their purchasing dollars. Significant discounts are occurring in the market place for feeder calves that are not weaned 45-60 days, castrated & healed, dehorned, and given 2 rounds of a modified live vaccine for the shipping fever complex. In 2019, a major restaurant chain is going to start requiring their suppliers of fed cattle to be Beef Quality Assurance certified. This will in turn be pushed down to the producer level. Exports to China and other countries are going to require age and source verification. These are growing realities for cow-calf producers if they want access to as many markets as possible.
The OSU Extension Beef Team is pleased to announce that they have completed two pre-recorded presentations under the theme of “Gaining Greater Market Access for Ohio Feeder Calves”. These videos contain a wealth of information that addresses ways for producers to add value to feeder calves and ultimately improve marketability.
Here are the highlights of the two presentations:
* Part One (50:56 in length)
– Bill Tom, Executive Vice-President, United Producers, Inc. addresses changing industry demands for today’s feeder calf and potential marketing options.
– Dr. Henry Zerby, Senior Director of Protein Innovation, Wendy’s Supply Chain Cooperative discusses the requirements necessary to qualify for specialty and targeted markets.
* Part Two (48:30 in length)
– Dr. Justin Kieffer, Clinical Veterinarian, The Ohio State University Department of Animal Sciences covers proper health preconditioning programs for feeder calves.
– Dr. Francis Fluharty, retired Research Professor, The Ohio State University Department of Animal Sciences reviews nutritional programs for feeder calf preconditioning and backgrounding enterprises.
Both of these videos are embedded above, and also will be housed permanently at the OSU Extension Beef Team’s Web Site at http://beef.osu.edu under the OSU Beef Team YouTube channel link.